Methods, systems and computer program products for electronic identification card creation and transfer during real time communications

ABSTRACT

Exemplary embodiments include a method for creating an electronic identification card during a real time communications session including: presenting a user with an option to enter personal information; receiving a command from the user to send the electronic identification card including the personal information during the real time communications session; recording the personal information for the electronic identification card with a data entry method; and sending the electronic identification card to a device involved in the real time communications session.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates in general to the field of real timecommunications, and in particular to the transfer and creation ofpersonal information during real time communications.

With the advent of pagers and mobile phones the wireless serviceindustry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Recently,duplex wireless devices have grown in popularity. Duplex wirelessdevices allow for the exchange of voice and other information over thesame channel. This is advantageous for multi-use wireless devices thatperform other non-telephony functions such as the administering ofcontact information, calendar information, cataloging of images, videoand audio. Users of multi-use wireless devices take advantage of theduplex nature of their products to talk and to exchange information.Current multi-use wireless devices, however, do not come without theirdrawbacks.

One problem with current multi-use wireless devices is that voice anddata cannot be transmitted at the same time. That is, one function mustbe suspended in order to perform the other function. Thus, if a firstparty is currently involved in a telephone call and he desires to send afile to the other party via the wireless device, the first party mustsuspend his telephone call in order to send the file. In addition towireless devices, many other communication devices also suffer fromsimilar drawbacks.

In today's global business environment, with the wide proliferation ofwireless devices and the frequency with which business is conducted overthese wireless devices, a large number of business contacts are madeover the wireless devices. Consequently, a person is often not in thephysical presence of his new contact (customer or client) and thus, whenconducting business via a cellular phone, the person is unable toimmediately present a business card to the contact. Therefore, theperson has to resort to mailing the business card to the contact orproviding his contact information verbally over the wireless devices.This mode of establishing new business contacts is not desirable, sinceit involves extra steps to get the business card to the contact and/orforces the contact to have to write the information down on a sheet ofpaper. With present cellular phone design, caller ID information isprovided to a call recipient when a call is received on the recipient'scellular phone. The identified number may then be stored on therecipient's phone. However, this information is often limited to thecaller's number, and the caller's name is often not provided for therecipient to recognize this number for later contact, the call recipienthas to manually enter the remaining data that may be relevant, such asthe caller's name and address, etc.

SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments include a method for creating an electronicidentification card during a real time communications session including:presenting a user with an option to enter personal information;receiving a command from the user to send the electronic identificationcard including the personal information during the real timecommunications session; recording the personal information for theelectronic identification card with a data entry method; and sending theelectronic identification card to a device involved in the real timecommunications session.

Exemplary embodiments also include a system for creating andtransferring an electronic identification card during real timecommunications including: means for establishing a real timecommunications session between a first and second devices; means forpresenting a user of the first device with an option to create anelectronic identification card; means for receiving a command from theuser of the first device to create the electronic identification card;means for creating the electronic identification card; and means fortransferring the electronic identification card to the second device.

Exemplary embodiments further include a computer program product forcreating an electronic identification card during a real timecommunications session, the computer program product including: astorage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructionsfor execution by the processing circuit for facilitating a methodincluding: presenting a user with an option to enter personalinformation; receiving a command from the user to send the electronicidentification card including the personal information during the realtime communications session; recording the personal information for theelectronic identification card with a data entry method; and sending theelectronic identification card to a device involved in the real timecommunications session.

Other systems, methods, and/or computer program products according toexemplary embodiments will be or become apparent to one with skill inthe art upon review of the following drawings and detailed description.It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, and/orcomputer program products be included within this description, be withinthe scope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanyingclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring now to the drawings wherein like elements are numbered alikein the several Figures:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the operation of the method for transferring anelectronic identification card during real time communications inexemplary embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the operation of the method for creating anelectronic identification card during real time communications inexemplary embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation of the data entry method forcreating an electronic identification card in exemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 4(a)-(e) illustrate an Instant Messaging (IM) user interface inaccordance with exemplary embodiments; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a system for creating and transferringelectronic identification cards during real time communications inexemplary embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the Figures for the purpose of illustrating theinvention and not for the purpose of limiting the same, it is to beunderstood that standard components or features that are within thepurview of an artisan of ordinary skill and do not contribute to theunderstanding of the various embodiments of the invention are omittedfrom the Figures to enhance clarity.

According to an exemplary embodiment, personal information in the formof an electronic identification card, also referred to herein as an“electronic business card” or a “v-card” for illustrative purposes, iscreated and transferred during real time communications. The electronicbusiness card may be in any format including, but not limited to, a .vcdas used by Microsoft™ Outlook™, a .txt file, a .csv data file, or animages file such as a jpeg or .bmp. The v-card may contain variousinformation about a person including, but not limited to, a name, a homeaddress, a work address, a work phone number, a home phone number, awork email address, a personal email address, a fax number, a mobilenumber, an instant message screen name, and a photo of the person.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a flowchart of the operation of the method forcreating and transferring an electronic business card during real timecommunications in exemplary embodiments is generally depicted as 10. Themethod for creating and transferring the electronic business card duringreal time communications 10 includes establishing a connection betweenfirst and second devices, as shown at step 12. A user of the firstdevice is presented with an option to create an electronic business cardfor the user of the second device, as shown at step 14. At step 16, themethod for creating and transferring the electronic business card duringreal time communications 10 includes receiving a command from a user ofthe first device to create an electronic business card for the user ofthe second device. After receiving the command from the first user, themethod for creating and transferring the electronic business card duringreal time communications 10 creates an electronic business card for theuser of the second device, as shown at step 18. The electronic businesscard may be created using a variety of data entry methods describedherein in further detail. At step 20, the method for creating andtransferring the electronic business card during real timecommunications 10 concludes by transferring the electronic business cardof the user of the first device to the second device.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a flowchart of the operation of the method forcreating an electronic business card during real time communications inexemplary embodiments is generally depicted as 100. The method forcreating an electronic business card during real time communications 100includes presenting a user with an option to create the electronicbusiness card during the real time communications session, as shown atstep 112. Shown at step 114, the method for creating an electronicbusiness card during real time communications 100 includes receiving acommand from the user to create the electronic business card during thereal time communications session. The method for creating an electronicbusiness card during real time communications 100 also includesrecording the electronic business card information with a data entrymethod, as shown at step 116. At step 118 the method for creating anelectronic business card during real time communications 100 concludesby sending the electronic business card created at step 116 to a deviceinvolved in the real time communications session.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a flowchart of the operation of the data entrymethod for creating an electronic business card in exemplary embodimentsis generally depicted as 200. The data entry method 200 includesprompting the user to provide personal information, as shown at step212. In an exemplary embodiment, during the middle of a phoneconversation, a user of a soft phone or a SIP phone may indicate that heor she is requesting an electronic business card by selecting a “requestelectronic business card” button on a soft phone interface or SIP phoneinterface, or by selecting a sequence of numbers on a POTS phone. Oncethe electronic business card has been requested, the user whoseelectronic business card was requested may be prompted to providehis/her electronic business card to the requestor. As shown at step 214the information entry method 200 also includes recording the personalinformation provided by the user. In exemplary embodiments, the promptcan be by way of dialog box in a soft phone interface or by way of a SIPphone's display. In other exemplary embodiments, the real timecommunication session between the two users can be maintained example(e.g., placed on hold) while an intelligent voice recognition systemprompts the user for the requested personal information. At step 216,the data entry method 200 saves the personal information provided by theuser in the electronic business card. The personal information may besaved using a DTMF recognition algorithm or a speech recognitionalgorithm, depending upon the method that the user chooses to providethe personal information. In exemplary embodiments, the user isiteratively prompted to enter personal information including, but notlimited to, name, address, phone number, email address, fax number,mobile number, instant message screen name, etc. Upon conclusion, thedata entry method 200 returns the users to their conversation and theelectronic business card transfer is completed. The electronic businesscard can be transferred to the requestor through various methodsincluding, but not limited to, a short message service, an email, a filetransport protocol, or the like. Upon receipt of the electronic businesscard, the requestor may be presented with the contents of the electronicbusiness card and be prompted to save or discard the electronic businesscard.

In exemplary embodiments, various devices may be used for the real timecommunications session including, but not limited to, a traditionalphone, a wireless phone, a PDA, a computer, a Blackberry, or any otherdevice capable of real time communications. The real time communicationsmay include a phone conversation, an instant messaging chat, avideoconference, or the like. Additionally, the device may include adatabase of electronic business cards that is used to organize contacts.For example, a wireless phone may use a database of electronic businesscards to implement a phone book feature of the phone.

In exemplary embodiments, depending on the preference of the user andthe type of the device that the user is using for the communicationssession, the personal information may be provided in various ways. Forexample, if the user is using traditional phone the personal informationmay be entered using the DTMF keypad or orally depending upon thepreference of the user. Additionally, if the user is using a device suchas a Blackberry or PDA, the personal information may be provided with afull keyboard or a stylus. In other exemplary embodiments, the devicecan be a computer, the communications session can be and InstantMessaging (IM) session, and the personal information can be entered viaa keyboard.

Referring now to FIGS. 4A-D, an IM user interface in accordance withexemplary embodiments is illustrated. In exemplary embodiments, the realtime communications session can be an IM session between two users andthe IM user interface 401 can include an option to request an electronicbusiness card 403 from another user, as shown in FIG. 4A. Once a userhas requested an electronic business card from another user, therequestee's computer may perform a search for the requested electronicbusiness card and upon locating the requested electronic business cardthe computer may send the electronic business card to the requestor,either automatically or upon approval from the requestee. The IM userinterface 405 may use a dialog box 407 to request approval for sendingthe electronic business card, as shown in FIG. 4B. Additionally, if therequestee's computer does not locate the requested electronic businesscard the requestee can be prompted to enter electronic business cardinformation for example into fields 413. The IM user interface 409 mayuse a dialog box 411 to allow the requestee to enter his/her personalinformation, as shown in FIG. 4C. After entering in his/her personalinformation, the user may choose to save the information entered into acontact or V-card, for example by hitting a “save” option (not shown).Alternatively, any of the information entered into each field can besaved as a V-card or electronic contact upon the V-card being sent,regardless of whether the user chooses to send that information byselection prompts 417 (see below). Once saved, the V-card or electroniccontact may thereafter be detected and sent when a subsequent requestfor the user's V-card is received. In exemplary embodiments, the dialogbox 411 may automatically retrieve the user's personal information froma cache, as mentioned below. In additional exemplary embodiments, asmentioned below, the dialog box 411 may allow the user to selectivelyinclude specific pieces of personal information to be included in theelectronic business card transferred to the requester. Furthermore, theIM user interface 419 can include a send electronic business card option415 that allows a user to send their electronic business card to anotheruser of the IM service, as shown in FIG. 4D. In exemplary embodiments,the IM application can have a default electronic business card that isassociated with the user.

In additional exemplary embodiments, a user may be presented with anoption to selectively include various fields in the electronic businesscard that is going to be transferred. Electronic business cards maycontain a lot of personal information that a user may not wish toprovide to the person that he is transferring the electronic businesscard to. For example, the person requesting the electronic business cardmay be a business contact and the requester may not wish to provide therequester with his home address or home phone number. Likewise, the usermay opt to not provide specific information during the creation of anelectronic business card during a real time communications session. If auser from which an electronic business card has been requested alreadyhas an electronic business card or contact information on their clientdevice (for example, in Outlook or IM), then an interface, such as thedialog box 411 as depicted in FIG. 4C, may be presented to the user inwhich fields are filled in based on the electronic business card orcontact information. The dialog box 411 may also include one or moreselection prompts 417 to selectively include what information to includein the transmission of his or her electronic business card to therequesting party. With reference to the exemplary user interface of FIG.4D, a similar interface to that of FIG. 4C may be presented to a user ifhe or she selects the “Send V-card” option 415.

In another exemplary embodiment in which a user does have V-card orcontact information associated with the user stored (either locally oron a network), a user interface, for example the user interface of FIG.4C, may be presented in which one or more of the fields 413 has beenautomatically populated using any V-card or contact information thatalready exists for that user. This may allow the user to glance at theinformation associated with his or her existing V-card, and to makeselections through selection prompts 417 as to what information he orshe wishes to include in the transmission of the V-card. As explainedabove, the user interface of FIG. 4C may be presented either when aV-card has been requested of the user or when a user chooses to send aV-card.

In exemplary embodiments, a user may be able to set preferences thatautomatically handle requests for his/her electronic business card andthe receipt of both requested and un-requested electronic businesscards. For example, the user may select a default electronic businesscard to be sent upon the receipt of a request for his/her electronicbusiness card and the user may also select whether or not to bepresented with a dialog box that allows the selective inclusion ofspecific information in the electronic business card being sent inresponse to a request. Additionally, the user may select a defaultstorage location for received electronic business cards and may set apreference of alerting the user to the receipt of an electronic businesscard. In exemplary embodiments, the user may elect to treat requestedand not requested electronic business cards differently. For example,the user may wish to automatically save requested electronic businesscards without being alerted to the receipt of the electronic businesscard while opting to alert the user to the receipt of non-requestedelectronic business cards and prompting the user to either save ordiscard the electronic business card.

Turning now to FIG. 5, a system for creating and transferring electronicbusiness cards during real time communications in exemplary embodimentsis depicted generally as 300. The system for creating and transferringelectronic business cards during real time communications includes afirst communications device 302, a second communications device 304, acommunications network 306, and an electronic business card server 308.In exemplary embodiments, the first and second communication devices 302and 304 are involved in a real time communications session over thecommunications network 306. As explained above, various communicationdevices may be used for the real time communications session including,but not limited to, a traditional phone, a wireless phone, a PDA, acomputer, a Blackberry, or any other device capable of real timecommunications. The real time communications may include a phoneconversation, an instant messaging chat, a videoconference, or the like.Additionally, the device may include a database of electronic businesscards that is used to organize contacts. For example, a wireless phonemay use a database of electronic business cards to implement a phonebook feature of the phone. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, thecommunication devices 302 and 304 are wireless devices. Thecommunications network 306 is in operable communication with theelectronic business card server 308, which upon the receipt of a requestfrom either the first and second wireless devices 302 and 304 creates anelectronic business card. In exemplary embodiments, the electronicbusiness card server 308 may use the method for creating an electronicbusiness card during real time communications 100 (FIG. 2) to create anelectronic business card. After creating an electronic business card,the electronic business card server 308 can transfer the electronicbusiness card to either or both of the first and second wireless devices302 and 304 over the communications network 306. In exemplaryembodiments, the communications network 306 may include, but is notlimited to, a Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), the Internet, anIntranet, a wireless telephone network, or the like.

In exemplary embodiments, a first user may request that a second userprovide an electronic business card to the first user and the seconduser is not capable of providing an electronic business card to thefirst user for various reasons. The first user may request theelectronic business card information from the second user and create anelectronic business card for the second user based upon the second usersresponses. For example, a person using a Plain Old Telephone Service(POTS) connection may not be able to transfer an electronic businesscard to someone that they are on the phone with; the other party mayrequest that the person provide each piece of electronic business cardinformation separately. The electronic business card requester can usevarious methods to capture and store the pieces of electronic businesscard information including voice recognition software. In exemplaryembodiments, the requester may utilize a program that automaticallyprompts, receives, and stores the electronic business card information.The electronic business card may be locally stored or can be sent toanother device for storage (e.g., the electronic business card can beemailed to an email account and stored in a contacts database).

As described above, embodiments may be in the form ofcomputer-implemented processes and apparatuses for practicing thoseprocesses. In exemplary embodiments, the invention is embodied incomputer program code executed by one or more network elements.Embodiments include computer program code containing instructionsembodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, harddrives, or any other computer-readable storage medium, wherein, when thecomputer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, thecomputer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. Embodimentsinclude computer program code, for example, whether stored in a storagemedium, loaded into and/or executed by a computer, or transmitted oversome transmission medium, such as over electrical wiring or cabling,through fiber optics, or via electromagnetic radiation, wherein, whenthe computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, thecomputer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. Whenimplemented on a general-purpose microprocessor, the computer programcode segments configure the microprocessor to create specific logiccircuits.

While the invention has been described with reference to exemplaryembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted forelements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situationor material to the teachings of the invention without departing from theessential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the inventionnot be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed for carrying outthis invention, but that the invention will include all embodimentsfalling within the scope of the claims.

1. A method for creating an electronic identification card during a realtime communications session comprising: presenting a user with an optionto enter personal information; receiving a command from the user to sendthe electronic identification card including the personal informationduring the real time communications session; recording the personalinformation for the electronic identification card with a data entrymethod; and sending the electronic identification card to a deviceinvolved in the real time communications session.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the personal information includes at least one of thefollowing: a name of a person; an address of the person; a phone numberof the person; an email address of the person; a fax number of theperson; a mobile number of the person; an instant message screen name ofthe person; and a photo of the person.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe device is a wireless device.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thedata entry method comprises: prompting the user to provide the personalinformation; recording the personal information provided by the user;and saving the personal information provided by the user in theelectronic identification card.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein thepersonal information is recorded using a DTMF input recognitionalgorithm.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein the personal information isrecorded using a speech recognition algorithm.
 7. The method of claim 2further comprising presenting the user with an option to selectivelyinclude one or more piece of personal information in the electronicidentification card.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronicidentification card is an electronic business card.
 9. A system forcreating and transferring an electronic identification card during realtime communications comprising: means for establishing a real timecommunications session between a first and second devices; means forpresenting a user of the first device with an option to create anelectronic identification card; means for receiving a command from theuser of the first device to create the electronic identification card;means for creating the electronic identification card; and means fortransferring the electronic identification card to the second device.10. The system of claim 9, wherein the electronic identification cardincludes at least one of the following: a name of a person; an addressof the person; a phone number of the person; an email address of theperson; a fax number of the person; a mobile number of the person; aninstant message screen name of the person; and a photo of the person.11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first device comprises adatabase of electronic identification card for organizing contacts. 12.The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first and seconddevices is a wireless device.
 13. The system of claim 9, wherein theelectronic identification card is an electronic business card.
 14. Acomputer program product for creating an electronic identification cardduring a real time communications session, the computer program productcomprising: a storage medium readable by a processing circuit andstoring instructions for execution by the processing circuit forfacilitating a method comprising: presenting a user with an option toenter personal information; receiving a command from the user to sendthe electronic identification card including the personal informationduring the real time communications session; recording the personalinformation for the electronic identification card with a data entrymethod; and sending the electronic identification card to a deviceinvolved in the real time communications session.
 15. The computerprogram product of claim 14, wherein the personal information includesat least one of the following: a name of a person; an address of theperson; a phone number of the person; an email address of the person; afax number of the person; a mobile number of the person; an instantmessage screen name of the person; and a photo of the person.
 16. Thecomputer program product of claim 14, wherein the device is a wirelessdevice.
 17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the dataentry method comprises: prompting the user to provide the personalinformation; recording the personal information provided by the user;and saving the personal information provided by the user in theelectronic identification card.
 18. The computer program product ofclaim 17, wherein the personal information is recorded using a DTMFinput recognition algorithm.
 19. The computer program product of claim17, wherein the personal information is recorded using a speechrecognition algorithm.
 20. The computer program product of claim 15further comprising presenting the user with an option to selectivelyinclude one or more piece of personal information in the electronicidentification card.